Atomi plans to open Actus early next year

SINGAPORE — When Andrew Tan started a Japanese lifestyle and furniture store in Mandarin Gallery seven years ago with his Japanese wife Mitsuko Murano, he could not have foreseen how he would end up bridging the two countries so intimately.

Atomi has grown from strength to strength here: Within a year of its opening, it added Japanese furniture from brands such as Maruni to its lifestyle collection; it expanded its floor space three years ago and announced in May that it is bringing back Japanese furniture brand Actus, which was in Singapore briefly in the 1980s.

That is not all — Atomi has been appointed the consultant to revamp a mall in Kobe owned by Singapore-listed Frasers Centrepoint, which will be ready next year.

Very impressive in a retail climate that has seen other Japanese brands such as Lowry’s Farm and Francfranc fold up in the last two years. Tan attributed Atomi’s success to its “small but nimble” mentality and its “human touch”. He explained Atomi keeps its footprint small (92sqm) to reduce overheads.

“We don’t take up a lot of space to show our offerings but it means we have to work harder to keep changing things up and making the effort to talk to the clients to explain what else we have with our catalogues. We are also on the ground all the time — being at the store just hearing what customers want and don’t want. It’s about giving them great service and sensory experience, as well as a product at a fair price,” added Tan.

Atomi’s hands-on approach and dedication have won it many fans, including brands clamouring to work with it. For example, Taiwan’s Sunny Hills got Atomi to furnish their cafe in Singapore and Hong Kong, and it was Actus which first reached out to Tan and his wife three years ago.

“We hit it off as friends and it’s a natural extension of two brands that are aligned. We already carry products from two of their furniture makers,” said Tan.

Tan is in the final stages of confirming the space for Actus, slated to open early next year. He revealed that the store will be located on the ground floor for greater visibility and will carry a wider range of furniture across different price points compared to Atomi.

Expect to see kids’ furniture, more lifestyle items such as the Ouur collection, done in collaboration between Actus and Kinfolk magazine, and even complete home solutions. Tan is also toying with the idea of bringing in Actus’ cafe Soholm to Singapore somewhere down the road.

Tan demurred at the suggestion he is further fuelling the demand for everything made in Japan with this exciting news. “It’s very easy to generalise, to say that there is a market for Japanese products here — things are more complex than that. It doesn’t mean that if a brand does well in Japan, it will do well in Singapore,” Tan mused.

“Customers might say they love Japanese design but the proof is only in their spending. We need to give them a proposition that is hard to resist.”

Atomi is at #04-27 Mandarin Gallery, 333A Orchard Rd.